Neuropsych Final

Rutgers Neuropsych with Mayhew Review questions 17-end

Neuroanatomical substrate for auditory object specification?

Superior Temporal Gyrus

Neuroanatomical substrate for visual object specification?

Inferior Temporal Gyrus

How the dorsal auditory pathway run in the temporal lobe

Between auditory cortex & posterior parietal lobe

dorsal auditory pathway function

locating sounds, orientating initiation of movement relative to locations

Where in the temporal lobe is there a polymodal area

in the STS – gets audio and visual information

where in the temporal lobe information flows to the polymodal area

neurons enfolded with STS—neurons lining STS are polymodal

2 categories of info that need to be taken into account when deciding what action is appropriate

internal & external info

Types of internal info that have to be taken into account when deciding what action is appropriate

What just happened, Context, Knowledge of self

External info that has to be taken into account when deciding what action is appropriate

external cues for action

why motor functions are important

They are what enable us to have a life; literally everything we want to do requires action

problem for patients in locked-in syndrome (not the cause)

These patients can’t move ANY part of their body but their EYES…they have no way to communicate or do any sort of output

anatomical divisions in the frontal lobes and how they relate to functional distinctions in the frontal lobe

Motor (primary),

Premotor & Supplementary motor cortex / Secondary motor cortex,

Prefrontal Cortex [Dorsolateral PFC, Orbitofrontal PFC, Medial PFC, Anterior cingulate gyrus]

What areas constitute the primary and secondary motor cortices?

Motor (primary)

Premotor & Supplementary motor (secondary)

four areas of the PFC [DOMAcg]

Dorsolateral PFC

Orbitofrontal PFC

Medial PFC

Anterior cingulate gyrus

What is the general direction of information flow in the brain?

eventually forward to the PFC [decides what to think/do about it]

Which thalamic nuclei are associated with PFC and motor cortices?

Dorsomedial / Mediodorsal Nucleus

input to thalamic nuclei that gets relayed to the cortex and how its different from the relays to the visual, auditory and somatosensory cortex?

Projections from amygdala (emotion, esp. fear), and olfactory sensory info

compared to just sensory info

reflexive movement

Survival-based movements you do without trying / thinking (Dr. hits your knee with hammer, your leg shoots up)

Cues used in Premotor Areas in action sequence choice?

External cues & Readiness for action

Cues used in Supplemental Motor Areas in action sequence choice?

Internal cues (hunger, thirst)

Spontaneous well-learned actions (head scratching)

Cues used in Cingulate Motor Areas in action sequence choice?

Emotional / motivational impetus for movement

mirror neurons

Neurons found in the secondary motor cortices of monkeys that are active during preparation to take action for themselves, and ALSO while watching someone else perform the same movement

Someone walked through the monkey’s field of vision walked by eating something, and the same neurons fired during that instance as did when they would be about to feed themselves

What type of actions do mirror neurons react to?

Goal-directed

Why did mirror neurons cause such excitement in psychologists when they were discovered?

the hope was that it would explain theory of mind, people with autism, etc etc

general functions of primary motor cortex?=

Convergence (of lots of info from somatosensory system)

& Departure (to subcortical and spinal regions)

corollary discharge; its function

body is CC'd on what motions to expect, so unexpected movement is weird / shocking

aspects of movement cerebellum moderates

Balance & coordination, accuracy

What aspects of movement do the basal ganglia moderate?

Force (how much)

Two major pyramidal output tracts from the primary motor area

Corticobulbar & Corticospinal

Direction, Function of corticobulbar

cortex —> pons & medulla

controls facial movement

Function of corticospinal

cortex —> spinal cord, controls hands, feet, neck, shoulders, and trunk

What is the difference between upper and lower motor neurons?

upper is motor cortex to spinal cord, lower are neurons with cell body in spinal cord outputting to muscle??

Two corticospinal tracts mentioned in class

Lateral & Medial/Anterior Tracts

Lateral corticospinal tract (descending pathways) functions

“lateral stuff” — controls movements of peripheral areas; hands, legs, arms, feet

Medial/Anterior corticospinal tract functions

ascending pathways, does medial stuff (controls movements of neck, shoulders, trunk)

What are extrapyramidal tracts?

A class of many descending tracts that control/influence movement

The names help explain where they’re coming from / what they do

What is the subdivision between the functions of the corticospinal tracts?

Control of lateral / peripheral areas vs. Control of medial areas

What is CIPA?

Congenital insensitivity to pain (with anhidrosis — lack of sweating)

Why is CIPA often fatal at early ages?

Anhidrosis means a lack of sweating, so babies with CIPA can’t regulate their temperature — many CIPA babies die of overheating

Type of agnosia Ian Waterman had (general term)

Asomatognosia

symptoms of contralateral, contralesional, or unilateral neglect/hemineglect/hemispatial agnosia/hemispatial inattention

Ignoring left space & body, Anosognosia

What is normally the lesion location in those with neglect?

Right parietal

Is neglect treatable?

Not really…extensive PT is recommended / occasionally successful, but there is no other formal treatment / medication

Where is the lesion in Gerstmann syndrome?

Left parietal

aphantasia

inability to generate mental images

percentage of neocortex constituted by frontal lobes

20-30%

What does it mean that the frontal lobes are late developing from the evolutionary point of view?

last part of brain to develop on the evolutionary timeline (newest brain feature)

general function of the frontal lobes

Generating appropriate behavior based on context

Agrammatism

Damage to Broca’s area (area 44/45) — lost grammar & use of verbs

Mutism

Damage to Dorsal Area 6, can’t speak

Two general types of problems with cerebellar disorders

Problems maintaining balance & posture

Uncoordinated voluntary movements

Decomposition of movement

Movements aren’t smooth but instead jerky

control of movement goes in pieces

ex. moving one’s shoulder, then elbow, then wrist to reach and grasp smtn

Intention tremor

Shaking that worsens as you reach the target of your movements

Parkinson’s disease

Progressive subcortical disease that makes it harder to move / start moving

Proximate cause of PD

Death of neurons, especially in substantia nigra (which sends dopamine-releasing axons to the basal ganglia…loss of dopamine leads to less stimulation of the motor cortex and slower onset of movements)

Incidence of the PD disease in people 60+

1% (15-300/100,000)

How much substantia nigra has been lost before the motor function impairments become noticeable

60%

Positive vs negative symptoms

Showing things that a typical person doesn’t show vs. Showing less of something that a typical person has

Positive motor symptoms in Parkinson’s disease

Resting tremor, rigidity, stoop, balance problems

Negative motor symptoms in PD [MIGAFS]

slower Movement [M],

harder Initiation [I],

slower, festinating Gait [G],

less / no Arm swing [A],

lack of Facial expression [F],

slower, softer Speech [S]

bradykinesia synonym

slowness/lack of movement

Freezing in PD

temporary, involuntary inability to move

agnosia meaning

“Failure to know”

Apperceptive vs Associative visual agnosia

(how they present)

can’t pull together — no recognition vs.

disorder of meaning

Apperceptive vs Associative visual agnosia (where the damage appears to be located)

primary visual areas vs.

social visual pathway

difference between view-dependent and view-invariant shape perception

Storing millions of pictures in every possible view & angle for every single object we know of

vs.

Storing “rules” about objects

problems with sparse coding shape perception

If you lose that singular neuron, do you forget what that object is or person is?

What about when the person ages & their appearance changes

sparse coding vs population coding [of object perception]

One neuron active for an object

vs.

Many neurons active in different degrees for an object

non-motor symptoms for Parkinson’s disease

Visuospatial & executive functioning deficits,

language difficulties,

mood (depression),

dementia

factors that protect against PD

coffee, cigs

risk factors for PD

environmental toxins

standard (primary) treatment for PD

L-dopa

other treatments of PD

Deep brain stimulation & stem cell therapy

L-dopa issue

only effective for a certain limited amount of time

DBS [deep brain stimulation]

Pacemaker implanted in globus pallidus or subthalamic nucleus in the brain

When deep brain stimulation is not an option

if the cognitive decline is too far progressed to do the DBS surgery

How effective stem cell therapy is right now

Not very

For which symptom of PD we saw deep brain stimulation used

motor symptoms [walking]

Incidence of Huntington’s disease?

5-10/100,00 in US

When Huntington’s appears

30-50 y/o

motor symptoms in Huntington’s

Jerks and twitches,

then tremors and writhing,

eventually trouble with walking, talking, etc. [voluntary movement in general]

What’s damaged in LoU Gehrig’s

Lower or Upper motor neurons

2 areas of inferior parietal lobe

Supramarginal and Angular Gyrus

Which cranial nerve deals with the information from the vestibular system?

8th - Vestibulocochlear / etc / etc

Why spinning around followed by a sudden stop results in a feeling that the world is spinning

inertia doesn’t immediately stop when the motion stops — the liquid in your brain is still spinning

The two different subparts of the vestibular system

Otoliths/otoconia & Semicircular canals

What Otoliths/otoconia respond to

linear motion (when your head tilts)

What Semicircular canals respond to

angular motion (when your head moves)

What can you not do with the Pain Scale very well?

Compare between different people (too subjective)

What is the pain scale useful for?

Getting a pain baseline for future comparison (to see if your pain is improving / decreasing)

somatosensory submodality carried in spinothalamic tract

Nociception (pain & temp)

3 types of receptors that give proprioceptive information

Muscle spindles,

Golgi tendon organs,

Joint receptors

How the spinothalamic tract runs

from spine to thalamus ???

where the spinothalamic tract decussates

right away at level of entry into spinal cord

Nociception

unpleasant stimuli – pain, extreme temperature

Hapsis

objects, using fine touch & pressure receptors

Proprioception

limb position, movement (where are your limbs in space?)

Interoception

feeling things in your body

Exteroception

feeling things outside your body

Normal submodalities in somatosensation

Nociception, Hapsis, Proprioception